‘Lid with Wings’ Is a Clever Kitchen Upgrade

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

The Lid with Wings is a deceptively simple saucepan lid which makes the humble pot cover into a rather more useful multitasker. The lid, as the name suggests, has some “wings” molded into its glass body. These help keep the lid stable when it is not set properly on the pot.

These glass lugs, two internal and two external, let you push the lid to one side for ventilation without having it flip up and fall off the pot. It also lets you tip the pot to empty it of liquid, whilst using the lid to hold the solid contents back. This is a rather dangerous proposition with a normal lid.

There’s more: The lid is slightly oversized for its companion saucepan, with a long lip that has a smaller radius than the lid itself. This matches the radius of the pan, and gives a longer opening around the edge for faster draining.

It’s ingenious, and one of those designs that is so clever and simple that you wonder why it wasn’t made years ago. The inventor — Vitaliy Gnatenko — has made his prototypes in glass, but the Lid with Wings could also be made in cast iron, steel or aluminum. I’d buy a pan with this lid, or even a pack of Lids with Wings for my existing pots and pans. There’s one thing I’d change, though, and that’s the name. It should be something much cooler sounding, like “Lid-o-Matic” or “Drain-a-Tron.”